Why the world remains silent as Sudan slides into catastrophic collapse

The horror unfolding in Sudan, centered on the fall of the city of El Fasher last week and the de facto partition of a country, is a tragedy that should have galvanised global outrage and action. Instead, it is met with muted statements, diplomatic fatigue and moral invisibility.

How can a war that, by conservative estimates, has killed more than 150,000 people, displaced over 15 million, and witnessed civilian massacres and ethnic cleansing go almost unaddressed in real time? Why is Sudan sliding into a full-scale famine, with 30 million people facing starvation as crops fail, aid convoys are blocked, and entire communities are cut off by relentless fighting?

To answer these questions, we must confront a series of uncomfortable truths: that this is a Muslim versus Muslim war, not a simple good versus evil or Muslim versus Christian framework; that the major foreign power driving the conflict is not the United States, Russia, or China, but the United Arab Emirates; that the weapons are crude and intimate, guns, machetes, paramilitaries, not fighter jets and missiles; and that the very body charged with ensuring global security, the United Nations Security Council, lies in a state of paralysis.

The conflict is primarily between the national...

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